Mudvayne released “Not Falling” in 2002 as the first single from their second studio album, The End of All Things to Come. The follow-up to L.D. 50 expanded the band’s use of melody, and its lead single had helped them figure out where the record should go.
“Not Falling” had already done important work before anyone at radio heard it. In the band’s biography for the album, drummer Matt McDonough recalled that it was the second song written and helped them feel confident about the sessions. Chad Gray saw its theme of self-realization as the center of the record. “The song demanded to be the nucleus, the central figure on this record,” he said.
After a year and a half on the road, Mudvayne had taken just a month off before starting the album. Extensive touring had taught the musicians to listen to one another and leave more room for vocals, McDonough explained. Producer David Bottrill reinforced that approach by questioning whether complicated parts actually helped a song. The aim was to keep Mudvayne’s technical identity while getting the musicians to work together more closely.
Recorded at Minnesota’s Pachyderm Studios, The End of All Things to Come moved between aggressive passages, vocal harmonies and changes in tempo. In his contemporary MTV News preview, Jon Wiederhorn described a broader musical range than on the debut, drawing attention to the record’s combination of progressive rock, death metal and melody. “Not Falling” was the first introduction to that expanded approach before Epic released the album on November 19.
The visual presentation changed, too. Mudvayne adopted an extraterrestrial appearance for the album campaign, and director Joel Peissig’s first “Not Falling” video turned the musicians into strange, veined creatures. It gave the single a science fiction setting, continuing the band’s use of elaborate makeup while moving away from the bloodier imagery of their earlier presentation.
That version didn’t satisfy Gray. By March 2003, Mudvayne had made another video with director Dean Karr, and the singer was openly questioning how much their appearance distracted from the songs. Speaking to MTV News in an interview reported by Blabbermouth, he said the first clip leaned too heavily on dark imagery and the monster character associations they wanted to escape. “The only thing we take seriously about this band is our music,” Gray said. Karr’s version placed the band in a blizzard without the creature costumes.
The song also found a home in Ghost Ship. HITS reported its use in the film’s advertising and end credits during the original campaign. Within the movie, it also plays aboard the salvage crew’s boat, making the connection more than a song attached to the closing credits. The film’s DVD included a separate “Not Falling” video assembled from movie footage.
Its radio run continued into the following spring. “Not Falling” reached No. 11 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in April 2003. On February 20, 2026, the RIAA certified the single platinum in the United States.
